| Ritter Island | |
| Elevation: | 140-1NaN-1 |
| Prominence: | 140-1NaN-1 |
| Location: | Papua New Guinea |
| Coordinates: | -5.5167°N 155°W |
| Type: | Stratovolcano |
| Last Eruption: | May 2007 |
Ritter Island is a small, uninhabited, crescent-shaped volcanic island 1000NaN0 north-east of New Guinea, in the Bismarck Sea, situated between Umboi Island and Sakar Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and close to New Britain island.
It is one of many active volcanoes in PNG, which result from a subduction of the Solomon Sea plate beneath the South Bismarck Plate along the New Britain Trench. There were several recorded eruptions of this basaltic-andesitic stratovolcano in 1699 and 1793, prior to a spectacular lateral collapse which took place in 1888. Before that event, it was a circular conical island about 780m (2,560feet) high.[1]
The earliest known sighting of the island by outsiders was by William Dampier, an English explorer, privateer, navigator, and naturalist. He reported that "we heard a dreadful noise like thunder, and saw a flame of fire after it, the most terrifying that ever I saw". The island is believed to have been named after the German geographer, Carl Ritter, when the area formed part of German New Guinea.[2]
See main article: articles and 1888 Ritter Island eruption and tsunami. At about 5:30 am local time on 13 March 1888 a large portion of the island, containing perhaps 5km3 of material slid into the sea during a relatively minor, possibly VEI 2,[3] phreatic eruption. Eyewitnesses at Finschhafen, 1000NaN0 to the south, heard explosions and observed an almost imperceptible ash fall.[4] Tsunamis NaN-1NaN-1 high were generated by the collapse and devastated nearby islands and the adjacent New Guinea coast killing around 3,000 people.[5]
The collapse left a 140abbr=NaNabbr= high, 1900abbr=NaNabbr= long crescent-shaped island with a steep west-facing escarpment. At least two small eruptions have occurred offshore since 1888, one in 1972 and another in 1974, which have resulted in the construction of a small submarine edifice within the collapse scar.[4]
